Every time I bring up Alexa, I get a ton of people who tell me how unreliable and worthless it is. Let’s assume for the sake of this piece that I know this. Let’s also assume that my budget for gathering data is zip and Alexa and Compete are the only real options.

With that out of the way, Alexa is showing major drops in reach for Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Mixx and other social bookmarking sites. They are all happening around the same time. Concerning? Not at this point, since the data is all very young. Worth monitoring? Absolutely.

It’s been nearly a year now, but when Kevin Rose boldly announced that “you’ve made it clear” and “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying,” in regards to the the HD-DVD key that was published everywhere, Digg was on top of the social media world with a true opportunity to be the site “for the people.” While the move to ignore a cease and desist declaration was a bit less bold than most understood at the time (it was everywhere at that point), it was still a public relations goldmine that Digg could have very easily parlayed into perpetual success. They just had to do one thing…

Listen to your people and deliver what they want.

Over the last year, Digg has focused on several issues. While all of these have importance, Digg has paid these issues more than enough attention. In most cases, they’ve paid too much attention them.

Instead of going into any of the dozens of high-potential startups that we looked at from 2007 that aren’t going to make it through 2008, let’s explore one general theme. Startups aren’t as sexy as they once were. I’m not talking about sexy, as in porn or meeting “friends” online. The sexy that I’m referring to is the kind of website that you read about, try out, and say:

What is Web 3.0? What would you like it to be? Please express your opinions in the comments below.

Over the past several weeks, I have been privy to many projects in different stages of development. One thing that seems to hold true for many of them is that the developers’ idea of “the next big thing” is a hybrid of sorts.

Some are leaning towards social media mixed with social networking. Most of the social media sites have tried to head in this direction to some extent. All have fallen short. Most notably, the Digg changes a few months ago have turned from an attempt to socialize social media (with shouts and other features) into an unfair way to game the system. The results have been disastrous.

Oops! Moojj did it again. Our favorite programmer and social media user down under has used his combined of “what we need” and “how to build it” and put out a killer tool for StumbleUpon users across the universe.

Introducing the StumbleUpon Alerter. Slick and sleak, this tool can be extremely useful for those trying to crack into the enigmatic SU elite status. As mysterious as Digg, Reddit, and the “pure” social media sites are, StumbleUpon has always had the most difficult algorithm to understand along with the fewest tracking tools available. It’s unique format and the sheer difficulty of classifying it (is it really a social media site?) make this tool an invaluable add to every stumbler’s system tray.

Before anyone jumps on me for writing a post that isn’t about social media, please read it all the way through. Then you can jump on me all you want!

In 1985, John Hughes wrote and directed The Breakfast Club. It helped push the careers of five rising stars to achieve relative success. These members of The Brat Pack were quoted, emulated, and launched into the yearly playing schedule on TBS 23 years after the film was made.

In this era of unoriginality in Hollywood, they really should considered making a new version that takes everything about the movie a little closer to the edge. Why?

The negative comments to this post are already coming. I can feel it. Why? Because I am about to be completely ambiguous and talk theoretically, even though I have knowledge that the things I’m about to discuss are facts.

Ever since Digg, Slashdot, and the other early social news sites took hold of a new market on the internet, there have been clones and competitors popping up left and right. The next “Digg Killer” has emerged and subsequently fallen almost every week for the last couple of years. Newer networks have been proposed, many are getting worked on, and I know a lot about some, little about others.